March is almost over! My students can’t believe that Slice of Life ends this week. Back in February they moaned and groaned when I handed out the assignment, and they did not believe they could do this. Imagine their surprise when most of them reached this week without missing a day! A few even asked me if they could continue blogging after the assignment ends!
The month has also flown by for me. Kells starts puppy class this week, spring break is so close I can taste it, and the marking period is almost over. For teachers in the northeast we are almost 75% done with the year! One more marking period to go!
Today is my Dad’s birthday (and March is when all of my brothers celebrate their birthdays), so my mom had everyone over. As usual, my sister made an incredible cake.
In case it isn’t obvious, I clearly inherited my love of nature from my dad. This year’s cake celebrated his love of the local flying squirrels (who come when he falls and eat from his hands) and the foxes and coyotes he watches via trailcams.
The party also meant my nieces got to meet their new cousin, my nephew Keegan! It was a very cute first meeting. My nieces also had fun playing with Kells, who I brought for socialization. Kells was a doll and the girls are so good with her!
Once I got home I settled in to watch more tournament basketball; tonight’s games completed my bracket demolition. I do love the underdogs, though!
For the first time ever in NCAA men’s basketball tournament history, all four number 1 seeds are out! There will be no #1 seeds in the Elite Eight, Final Four, or national championship games. Absolutely wild! This is also only the fourth time the advent of the Sweet Sixteen that none of the basketball blue bloods – Kentucky, Kansas, Duke, UNC- have participated.
This is what the leaderboard in my bracket challenge looked like earlier tonight. Just redonkulous all around.
Apparently it’s National Puppy Day, so my social media has been full of dog pictures. I’m ok with that.
The headache I’ve had all day is not fun, though. I’m pretty sure it’s due to the change in atmospheric pressure, but that doesn’t make my head hurt less. Ugh.
My day:
School
Oversee GSA meeting during the second half of lunch.
Teach three periods (all of which were in different spots in my lesson plans).
Happy spring! Today it was 60° and sunny. The sky was blue and the breeze was cool. After work I took the dogs for a meandering walk at a local park and allowed them to just sniff and watch things. Did you know sniffing is often more exhausting for dogs than physical exercise? Dogs have more smell receptors than humans and spending time sniffing the world around them decreases their heart rate and relaxes them. We often rush dogs through walks, but slowing down is so good for us and them.
On our walk I saw blue birds and sparrows hopping from branch to branch. There were spring peepers singing in the vernal ponds. The daffodils were in bloom buds are popping! Happy spring!
I spent most of today thinking it was March 22nd. I also wished my students a happy weekend. Oops.
After school I ran home, grabbed the dogs, and drove to Belmar. I met up with a bunch of colleagues who were going to play frisbee golf. I brought the dogs for socialization and it was great! They did great. Kells met my colleague’s 3 month old puppy and she was quite happy. She’s going to love starting puppy class next week! She then drank a gallon of water at the end. Navan was great , too. It was a fun afternoon with lots of different exposures for Kells and good practice for Navan.
Happy spring! My students are well into Slice of Life, and as of Friday over 70% of them had blogged every day! I’m so impressed with their work during this project.
But school aside, we are officially in spring. It was 60° on our afternoon walk, the sun was shining, and the birds were singing. We explored a new trail and enjoyed some vitamin D. Now this is NJ, so we will likely still get some cold days (it was freezing this morning), but the days are longer and they are getting warmer!
8:45am-12:30pm taught two classes. From 9-11 I ran my SAT class, and from 11-12:30 I ran my HS English prep class. Both classes are virtual so I don’t have to travel.
12:30-1:30 hang out with the dogs and enjoy the blue sky (and cold weather), pick up Panera for lunch, make my grocery list. Watch the first games of the day.
1:45-3pm grocery shopping at Aldi and ShopRite. Why were the stores so crowded today?!
3-4:30pm unpack the groceries, feed Kells, put the corned beef on the stove for dinner, spend more time outside while the robot vacuums clean the floors.
4:30-6pm watch more basketball. Plan for the week.
6-7pm walk the dogs and explore the new trail we found down the street.
7-7:30pm bathe and dry both dogs after the very muddy and bramble-filled walk. Oops. Chris peeled potatoes for dinner.
7:30-8pm eat dinner. Watch the FDU vs FSU game.
8-10pm entertain the dogs and continue watching the games.
10-?pm watch the last few games agd check my brackets.
Me to my students all the time: “Don’t stay up all night! Sleep! When you don’t get enough sleep, your body can experience fatigue, decreased cognitive function, mood changes, health issues, a weakened immune system, and an increased risk of being in a car accident. Plus, everything seems much worse when you are tired.”
Me last night at 12:30am realizing people are live-tweeting the set list for opening night of Taylor Swift’s Eras tour: “oh, I’ll just wait few minutes to see the next few songs. Oh, someone is live-streaming the show on TikTok? I will see what it looks like for a minute.”
Cut to 2am when I am still watching a livestream forty songs into Taylor’s set list.
It as worth it. 😂
Unfortunately, watching the livestream only convinced me that I need to go to this tour, so it looks like I’ll be buying resale tickets in May for the NJ or Philly show. I may even go alone!
Happy St. Patrick’s Day! Happy March Madness! Happy Swiftmas! What. A. Day.
I’m exhausted from the longest week ever. Somehow Daylight Savings Time was only last weekend?! It feels like 3 months ago. March is really a weird month where time doesn’t exist.
I’ve watched 32 basketball games in 48 hours and can’t wait to watch FDU and Princeton play again later this weekend. What a gift from the basketball gods. The madness!
The Reading Zone 